Suburban Bliss
by Dana Hale
Summary: Set immediately after Season 4 finale "The Lighthouse." Here's how they get out of that hot mess. It's quite simple, really.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: No infringement intended. Haven is owned by Sam Ernst, Jim Dunn and Syfy.

* * *

"Now, who's going to help me get William back?"

Nathan's heart constricted in his chest and his breath hitched. He knew immediately from Audrey's voice that Mara had taken over, stronger than ever. He could not go through this again, losing Audrey to some other personality, especially a seemingly evil one. Refusing to believe that this was how it was going to end, he resolved to make damn sure that today would not be the day he would lose her.

In hot anger, he rushed towards Mara and growled with authority "NO ONE! YOU are going to give AUDREY back."

"Not so fast there, knight-in-shining armor!" Mara warned Nathan to stay back. "At any time I can erase your precious Audrey Parker from existence, never to be recovered again."

Nathan stopped his advancement but firmly locked his pleading eyes with Mara. "Audrey, I know you're in there. Don't let Mara take over." Nathan swallowed hard. "I know you can fight this."

Mara's evil stare turned soft, a glimmer of Audrey showing through.

"Parker?" Nathan begged, hoping with all his might that he had gotten through to her.

"Nathan, help me! I can't hold-" Audrey's scared and shaky voice was cut off.

Nathan ran to her when he saw her big wet tears drip down both sides of her face; she looked beyond frightened. It was the second time today that he had seen her in such a state, and he felt completely helpless. He was beyond livid that he couldn't protect her from the horror that she was battling inside her mind. He held her face in his hands and brushed her tears away with his thumbs.

"We're going to get through this, you hear me? You are strong enough to fight her. Audrey, I will NEVER give up on you…" Then he saw the shift in her eyes again.

Mara let out a taunting laugh at Nathan. "Your Audrey is a feisty one; she's been fighting me for a long time. Longer than you'll ever know. But I'm stronger now. She no longer gets to rule over me. I'm in control. Now unhand me." She pushed his hands away from her face.

Nathan narrowed his eyes and gave her a glare that could kill. Mara grinned. "Oh. I see this upsets you, you poor, poor dear. But I will do whatever it takes to get William back, and there's nothing you mere mortals can do to stop me."

Duke coughed again as more blood came pouring out of every orifice of his face. The noise turned Mara's attention away from Nathan and towards Duke. The gang all watched frozen in place as she made her way over to Duke who was hunched over in terrible pain next to Jennifer who was still unconscious.

"Well would you look at that," Mara gloated as she stood over Duke and Jennifer. "I guess I don't need anyone's help after all. The Fair Maiden Audrey and the Child of Ruin left me the perfect gift that will do the trick."

Dwight stepped forward to make a move with his taser, but Nathan stole a glance over to him, giving him the non-verbal wave of his hand to back off. The last thing Nathan wanted was another impulsive move to hurt Audrey or destroy any chance he had at getting her back. Dwight stopped in his tracks and nodded silently in understanding.

Mara loomed over Duke and stretched out the palm of her hand. The black orbs that contained all of the Troubles that Duke was suffering from flew out of his left ear and floated in the air over to Mara. They landed in a pyramid-shaped pile into her palm. Then the orbs dissolved in place, covering her hand first in black ash and then disappearing completely. Immediately, Duke was back to normal.

Mara grinned with delight. "It's about time I have back what I created. Looks like this town is in for some more…_Trouble_."

"Duke, you okay?" Nathan called. Duke nodded, not able to speak as he looked down on Jennifer's pale face.

"Don't look so sad. She's not dead by the way. Unfortunately, I'm still going to need her," Mara spoke to Duke.

Jennifer suddenly jumped back to life. She took a big gulp of air and then let out a shriek. Duke grabbed her face and forced her to look into his eyes to focus. "Jennifer? Shhh….you're okay."

While Duke and Jennifer were distracted, Mara grabbed Jennifer's book that had been thrown off to the side in all the commotion. Mara pointed the book at the door to the abyss, and a powerful force sprang forth from the glowing pages which opened up the door to the abyss once again.

"NO!" Jennifer yelled. But it was too late. Out of the clouds and lightening arose the body of William. It was clear that his body was dead, but Mara knew his Spirit was not. His body came to rest on the ground as the door closed shut.

Mara crouched down and placed her hand over his heart. A spark of electricity ignited between them, and the Spirit of William came out and hovered over the body. There was no form to his Spirit; he was just a ball of pure energy. A great rushing wind started to blow around the entire lighthouse cavern, making everyone brace themselves against its power or else they would be swept in.

Mara shouted above the roar. "Now we can be together again, my darling!"

Nathan stood in shock as the Spirit of Mara stepped out of Audrey's body. Audrey screamed in pain as the separation took place. The jolt of it threw her backwards into the wall of the cavern, and she hit her head hard against the rock. The wind howled stronger as the two Spirits joined together and swirled around in the air, creating a lightning storm.

"AUDREY!" Nathan cried above the raucous. He ran to her and fell on his knees at her side. Her eyes were wide and teary as she gasped while clutching to Nathan for comfort, her body trembling from the after-effects of Mara's energy that had ripped through her.

Nathan held her tightly and shielded her as best he could while everyone watched in amazement as the Spirits hovered in the air for a moment and then shot out of the cavern like a lightning bolt and left them.

The cavern went quiet.

Duke was the first to speak. "Okay. That was…._interesting_."

"Everyone okay?" Dwight asked.

"Dave's still hanging on," Vince replied as he looked at his brother who was still bleeding from his shoulder.

Duke helped Jennifer up and hugged her, rubbing his hands across her back to help calm her obvious nerves. "You okay?"

"I feel a little light-headed, but yeah, I'm okay. You?"

"Me? Oh, I'm just peachy," he replied. He placed a kiss to the top of her head. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he helped her to walk over to where Nathan and Audrey were still huddled together on the ground.

"How's she doing?" Duke looked to Nathan.

"I think she's in shock. I need to get her out of here. Dwight- call Laverne, get an ambulance for Dave. Jennifer and Duke should be looked at too. I'll take care of Audrey."

Nathan easily lifted Audrey up into his arms and carried her out of the lighthouse towards the Bronco, leaving Dwight to take care of everyone else.


	2. Chapter 2

Nathan ducked into the passenger side of the Bronco and carefully eased Audrey up onto the bench seat and helped her to lie down in the fetal position. She was still shivering but was starting to fade in and out of consciousness.

"Hey," Nathan said as he cupped her cheek with his palm. "You still with me?"

Her eyes flickered open and her voice sounded small. "Yeah. Just want to go home."

"Parker, no. I'm taking you to the hospital. You're freezing cold, your body's in shock, and you most likely have a concussion. That was the second time today you took a nasty blow to the head," Nathan winced as he remembered slamming his head into hers in order to take William out earlier. He hated himself for hurting her even though she had begged him to do it, but he had no other choice at the time.

Nathan reached over into the back seat and grabbed the blanket he had stored there for emergencies. He tucked the blanket around her tightly and placed a long-held kiss to her forehead as he hovered over her and sighed heavily.

"Thought I lost you again," he whispered.

"Thought I lost me too," her voice quivered as she shut her eyes to fight a stab of pain coursing through her head. Okay, so maybe she did have a concussion. "But I understand now."

"What?"

"Who I really am. And it's not Mara." Another tremor hit her and she curled up more into the blanket.

"Told ya," he smiled at her. "Knew you could never be her. Never believed it for a second." He gave her another kiss, this time planting it lightly on her lips. "We can talk more later. Need to get going."

* * *

After giving Audrey some fluids and running a few tests, the doctor came back in the room to give his diagnosis.

"Your vitals are back to normal. I'll give you a prescription for that headache of yours. You do have a concussion. I'll release you to go home but you'll need to be monitored closely during the next 48 hours. Don't sleep for longer than 4 hours at a time."

Nathan held her hand and squeezed it. "I'll watch her, doc."

"Audrey, being your doctor lately has been quite a chore. When you were in here a few days ago for your '_gunshot'_ wound, I had wanted to do a follow-up head scan but you left so quickly, I didn't get the chance. You never did come back to see me for your follow-up appointment after we did that original scan."

"A _follow-up_ head scan?" Nathan asked, perplexed. He looked at Audrey and she gave him a sheepish look.

Audrey had wished the doctor had not brought this up in front of Nathan. "I was feeling fine. I didn't think it was necessary. Like you said, it was probably just a malfunction of your equipment."

"Well, the scan we just ran came back with only one brain wave showing, so perhaps it was a malfunction the first time." The doctor scratched his head and turned to leave the room and mumbled, "Crazier things have happened in this town."

"Okay, what was that about?" Nathan questioned Audrey after they were left alone.

Audrey smirked. "Well it all makes sense now, doesn't it!" she replied.

"Um… no?"

"Remember that day I came back from the Barn when you thought I was Lexie and we went to the hospital so you could question Tyler and I could get my head scanned?"

"Yeah…."

"Well I wasn't exactly 'right as rain'. The scan showed TWO separate brain waves. At the time I just thought the second one was Lexie, because I had all of her memories including my own. Normally the memories of my prior personality are lost, but not this last time, so I brushed the doctor off and figured he didn't need to know, right?"

Nathan started to follow her logic. "But the second brain wave wasn't Lexie, it was—"

"Mara. When I jumped out of the barn, I had to cross the abyss to get back to Haven. Her Spirit had been banished into the abyss, and that's why William encouraged me to jump out of the barn. He knew Mara was out there waiting, and he knew that Mara would possess me and I was the transport that would bring them both back because I opened the door. She just didn't come into the forefront of my mind until William activated her by getting me to trouble someone."

"So who is Mara?"

"I remember who I am, Nathan. I had a vision when William held me in his grip before you pushed him into the abyss. The original me was named Abigail. Mara is my sister. We were both in love with William but she wanted him to herself, so somehow she created the Troubles and got him hooked on them too, and evil overtook them both."

Nathan was intrigued. "What else do you remember?"

"Well the rest of it is kind of fuzzy. I think I had an older brother and younger sister that tried to help me stop Mara."

"Dave and Jennifer? The beginnings of The Guard?" Nathan dared suggest.

Audrey shook her head in amazement. "Yeah, I don't know…how could that be? I still don't have all the answers. Anyway, we have quite the job ahead of us now that Mara and William have possession of the black orbs and they're hovering about over Haven. We have to stop them."

"Now I have a headache too," Nathan confessed. "But one step at a time. I'm more concerned about you right now. Let's get out of here and go home so you can rest."


	3. Chapter 3

"I could get used to this-" Audrey smiled as Nathan cleared away her plate and brought her a glass of water so she could take her pills. "-being waited on hand and foot."

Nathan let out an incredulous huff. "You never liked being fussed over before. Why the sudden change of heart?"

After she swallowed her pills and set the water glass down on the bedside table, he fluffed up her pillow and pulled the covers over her. It was late, so he decided to turn in himself. He climbed into bed next to her and curled his body around hers.

"Hmmm. Maybe it's because earlier today someone painted me a picture of what suburban bliss is like."

Nathan smiled to himself as he recalled how he had subtly proposed marriage to her without even really thinking about it. It just came out of his mouth that way. But he meant every word of it.

She turned in his arms so they could be face to face and continued her explanation. "You're still here. After everything you know about me…you're still by my side. I've tried to push you away so many times for your own good, but you've always been there for me, Nathan, protecting me. That means a lot to me."

"Wouldn't have it any other way," he countered. "You know," he said to her in his low husky voice as he nuzzled her nose with his, "I was hoping today that this would be the last of you changing into someone else. But I realized there's one more personality of yours that I just HAVE to meet."

Audrey crinkled her brow in surprise as Nathan continued his tease. "No, really, you're gonna like this. Her name is Audrey Wuornos."

"Audrey Wuornos," she repeated with a smile. "Okay, so tell me…what is Audrey _Wuornos_ like?"

"Well, she's exactly like Audrey Parker, but she's married to this amazingly brilliant and handsome detective named Nathan Wuornos- although- he still might call her 'Parker' from time to time 'cause he knows she likes it. She's this gorgeous blonde bombshell who works at the Haven PD. Sexy as hell when she wears her gun and badge. Total turn-on when she helps the Troubled. She gets up early every morning just so she can make her husband pancakes before they go out and save the town of Haven together."

Audrey let out one of her rare giggles. "Oh, how considerate of her. She sounds like a real catch."

"Uh huh. She's perfect."

"Well then. When do you think I should turn into Audrey Wuornos?"

"Sometime real soon," he said in all seriousness.

The look she gave him told him all he needed to know as she smiled and hugged him tighter.

He kissed her soundly and then they settled into each other's arms and fell asleep.

End


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